Supporting Sustainable Consumption

Transcription

1 + Supporting Sustainable Consumption OECD Workshop Paris, April 2010

2 Environment for Development UNEP s vision Strengthen scientific and knowledge base on SCP Governments enabling framework, market instruments, incentives and measures, raising awareness Enabling SCP patterns at all levels, through cleaner / safer production, business responsibility, sustainable goods and services Create new cultural models, sustainable lifestyles and consumption patterns Promoting SCP at the international level: Marrakech Process on SCP

3 Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) Promote increasing resource efficiency and sustainable lifestyles Underlying drivers for consumption Improving processes, products & services business Identifying obstacles & opportunities Influencing and advancing sustainable consumption and production patterns Modernizing infrastructure and policy framework governments Creating awareness, dialogues and reflection consumers

4 Waste Management Sustainable resource management Sustainable lifestyles Design for sustainability D4S Sustainable marketing Lifecycle Perspective Cleaner production & Resource Efficiency Sustainable procurement Sustainable transport Eco-labelling and certification

5 Approaches and Tools 1. Consumers perceptions and attitudes 2. Education for Sustainable Consumption 3. Communications, Marketing and Advertizing 4. Environmental Information Tools

6 Education Challenges and Opportunities Responsible citizens and consumers Rational participation in the markets (social and environmental impacts) Awareness of fundamental rights and freedoms Participation in the public debate (values, quality of life, responsibility and accountability ) Knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary for functioning in today s society

7 Partnership for Education and Research about Responsible Living (PERL) Educators, researchers and practitioners from over 100 institutions in over 40 countries. UNEP, Marrakech Task Force on Sustainable Lifestyles (Sweden), Marrakech Task Force on ESC (Italy), UNESCO, Consumers International Programmes Reflection and implementation: developing research, policy analysis and recommendations Social innovation: giving visibility to creative communities that collaboratively invent new ways of living; Enabling sustainable lifestyles: projects around the globe that provide data for research and opportunities for teaching Education for responsible living: creating materials and methodologies for consumer citizenship and education for sustainable consumption Communication and multimedia: preparing and disseminating PERL methods and materials International dialogue and consultation: carrying out research, discussion and debate (development of PERL s regional netowkrs in Latin America and Asia/Pacific)

8 Consumer Education and Awareness-Raising A focus on youth Capacity-building: YouthXchange A train-the-trainer toolkit for educators and trainers to explain SD challenges and opportunities in a day to day life frame; empower youth towards action. YXC is aimed at15-25 global urban consumer class / future decision makers It has been adapted in more than 25 countries and translated in 19 languages A Youth Platform on Sustainable Lifestyles Formal education: Here and Now! Education for Sustainable Consumption Guidelines and recommendations to integrate ESC into national education and SD strategies and teaching practices

9 Mainstreaming best communications and marketing practices Sustainability Communications. A Toolkit for Marketing and Advertising Courses CD-ROM to build the capacity of marketing and communications teachers and students on sustainability (higher education). Creative Gallery on Sustainability Communications Online database compiling advertising campaigns from all around the world produced by companies, NGOs, governments, local authorities and all stakeholders concerned by the promotion of sustainable development, as well as by the development of green products and services. Knowledge Management Platform and Partnership on Sustainable Markets and Consumption patterns Platform to track most up-to-date trends on consumer behaviors towards sustainable markets and foster sustainable business development

10 Environmental Information Tools Background Environmental information tools voluntary initiatives to differentiate products based on their environmental characteristics, incl. labels, certification standards, statement, declarations etc. Business: communicate their environmental credentials Governments : buy and persuade behavioural change towards long-term policy objective End consumers: guide their purchasing Environmental information tools as an important SCP element interface between production and consumption patterns

11 Problem statement High degree of diversity in scope and means of communication reflection of the range of products, complexity of environmental factors and impacts Different tools serve different users Rapid explosion: overwhelms and confuses consumers Different approaches lead to inefficiency, unfair competition, duplication of efforts and create additional transaction costs No commonly applied principles to communicate environmental information in a practical and reliable way

12 Key challenges Identify and agree on international principles for design and operation of internationally recognized tools such transparency, credibility, life-cycle approach and systematic understanding of present and future challenges Identify and promote environmental information tools designed and operated by globally agreed principles

13 Proposed methodology Coordinated multistakeholder consultation process a transparent collaborative learning process mediated by an impartial third party 1. A number of basic principles will be proposed agreed and used for review and analysis of existing information tools. 2. Use target industries - resource and labour intensive with highest impact: agrifood, buildings, automobile and metals and retail 3. Dialogues towards international recognition, consensus building and convergence, eg. African ecolabelling mechanism, Tourism Sustainability Council and Eco-labelling project. 4. Capacity building to developing countries, e.g Eco-labelling project. Pilot demonstration project

14 Value-added of UNEP Intergovernmental organization with a global mandate Wealth of relevant experience UNEP/SETAC Life Cycle Initiative UNEP and GRI joint work on corporate reporting African Eco-labelling Mechanism Tourism Sustainability Council Eco-labelling Project

15 Implementation process Multi-stakeholder consultative forum to propose a set of global common principles Identify existing international initiatives from the target sectors and map advanced organizations Initiate and coordinate the assessment studies of existing tools to evaluate their environmental effectiveness Develop methodology and design antigreenwashing campaign

16 Anti-greenwashing Discourage greenwashing by providing principles what make a legitimate green claim Take stock of existing studies and methodologies, develop a methodology for testing various claims, draw a framework of principles, carry out assessment studies Develop and launch anti-greenwashing campaign with a number of pilot countries in OECD and emerging economies help consumers become more savvy about evaluating environmental marketing claims; help producers and marketers adopt principles of legitimate environmental marketing; help governments to increase their role in establishing sustainable behaviour through policies based on a framework of principles on legitimate environmental marketing

17 Thank you Fabienne Pierre UNEP DTIE, SCP Branch Tel Liazzat Rabbiosi UNEP DTIE, SCP Branch Tel